We are pleased to announce that, with the help of all your fellow fans
doing a good job at canceling extra rooms and consolidating them as soon
as possible, we have been able to free up enough rooms to allow us to
re-open the Doubletree Room Block. We will do so effective December 10th
at 12 noon Pacific time.

We currently have the ONLY following free space available at the
Doubletree.

We expect to possibly pick up a few more last minute cancellations prior
to December 10th and again in the latter half of December up through our Hotel
Reservation Cutoff date on January 5th, 2009. In light of that fact, we
have decided to simply leave the block open until then once we re-open on
December 10th. Rooms will be on a first-come, first-serve basis and should
be booked only by calling the official telephone number for reservations
(+1 408-453-4000) and using the convention Code FurCon. We expect these
rooms to be ONLY Single Kings. Only one room can be booked per person.
Please do not ask for more.

Before booking a reservation, please be sure that you need it. We will
have a lot of folks chasing a relatively small number of resources. Don't
make that problem even harder. And, please do not forget, if you
previously had a room booked at The Holiday Inn or another area hotel,
please cancel that reservation as well once you have confirmed the new
reservation at the Doubletree.

We know that although a significant number of you will benefit from
releasing these rooms to the public. A even more significant number may
still not get word in time or may simply get beat out at the draw
depending on how many folks are clamoring for a space. We truly appreciate
your forbearance and kindness in dealing with the Hotel Reservations and
other staff and we truly hope to reduce this issue in the future.

2. Looking for more Staff

Yes, we still need staff members to round out some departments. We
especially are looking for people for our Convention Operations (Con Ops)
to cover some shifts there. If you are a night owl (or
lupine/canine/feline/reptile) willing to cover Con Ops between the hours
of 2am to 6am, at any time or throughout the con, please contact us! Con
Ops is the central point of contact for the convention, so if you ever
wanted to know what goes on at a con, you'll find out by working Con Ops.

Please contact us at HR@furtherconfusion.org if you can help.

3. Art Show

The Art Show is almost sold out, but we still have some limited space
available. Act now, before all the spaces are gone!

We're full up, folks! Thank you all for the excellent response. All 20
spaces are now full. However, it is always possible that there will be a
cancellation before the convention, so if you are still interested and
don't mind not knowing for sure if you will have space or not until
possibly the last minute, look to the section below in this newsletter
for how to get on the waiting list.

5. Dealer Room and Furry Market Place Waiting List

With both the Dealer Room and the Furry Market Place full, getting space
to sell at the convention is going to be a little difficult. Our first
recommendation is that you check the list of dealers in the Dealer Room
and Furry Market Place on the website and contact your friends if you see
them there and contact them to see if they can carry your wares in return
for you helping them man their table during the convention.

Second, you can send in a Waiting List Application and get added
to the Random Lottery for a space if someone cancels from one of
the two selling areas. To get on the list, go to
<http://www.furtherconfusion.org/fc2009/dealers> and download the Waiting
List Application you will find there. Fill it out and get it to us before
December 15th, 2008 and your name will be placed into the lottery for any
space that opens up.

Please be aware, there are a fair number of people on the Waiting List
already. But selection from the list is in a Random Lottery
so that everyone on the Waiting List has an equal chance to be selected.

6. Live! Action! Drawing!

Live! Action! Drawing! is a newish event that happens during the
night dances, and we're looking for some more artists to participate.

Each night up on stage during the dance, we'll have an easel set up under
a spotlight. Artists will be scheduled and have roughly 60 to 90 minutes
to draw. The artist is encouraged to draw from inspiration in the room,
the lights, the music, the dancers. We provide the paper and the
implementations, we just need a few more artists to participate.

If you're interested, send an email to dances@furtherconfusion.org

7. Announcing Furry Night Live 2009!

Hey Dudes and Dudettes, grab your boards and head to the stage! Further
Confusion's Surf Safari keeps rolling with our Sunday evening tradition -
Furry Night Live! FNL09 is currently accepting not only live on-stage acts
but video submissions as well, competing for audience votes and prizes.

Awesome acts are not built overnight! Need help getting your act ready?
got questions on equipment or regulations? Looking for a few extra surf
dawgs to round out your beach party? Join the FNL09 Discussion Mailing
List: <http://www.furtherconfusion.org/fc2009/signup/fnl>
(FNL'08 membership does not carry over to 2009)

Space is limited for acts, so don't get left with your head in the sand!
Also check out <http://furrynightlive.livejournal.com> for future
announcements and discussion. If you have any questions, please contact
fnl-staff@furtherconfusion.org

We will be using this feed to send out announcement as the convention
approaches, and during the con we'll be sending out reminders for upcoming
major events - eg, registration opening, masquerade starting, and so on,
not to mention any last minute programming changes.

9. Next Staff Meeting

Our next staff meeting will be on December 13th, starting at 1pm in the
San Jose DoubleTree hotel. Parking is free - we will be providing stickers
at the meeting which will allow the parking staff to know you were with
Further Confusion, and let you out without needing to pay.